


A Different Side

by Raepocalypse



Series: There's More Out There [3]
Category: Block B
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Growing Up Together, M/M, Soft Boys, rated mostly for language and mentions of sex, they're young in the beginning but they don't do Adult Things no worries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-04-11
Packaged: 2019-04-21 09:21:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14281845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raepocalypse/pseuds/Raepocalypse
Summary: Jiho and Kyung have known each other their whole lives, and realizing their soulmates doesn't make their relationship magically change. It's okay, though. They can make it work.





	A Different Side

**Author's Note:**

> This is half the length that I wanted but here we are. It felt weird to start bringing the others in. I feel like one person at a time being added in is the way to do it. This is like a recipe okay I gotta do it riGHT.

Jiho remembers the moment he realized he’d had his soulmate all along was when Kyung broke his arm in the seventh grade. They had gone to the same elementary school, but no one feels it that early. Most people don’t feel it in the seventh grade either. Jiho thinks they were an exception because they had already found one another. Kyung thinks it’s because they’re amazing. Of course he does.

He had been in class and pain had just lanced through him, leaving him confused and afraid and gasping. He had been taken to the hospital when the nurse at the school couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him. He woke up from being heavily drugged and checked his kakaotalk to see a message from Kyung. 

_ [3:43] i broke my arm :c _ _   
_ _ [3:45] pay attention to me im sad and lonely _ _   
_ _ [4:02] school is out what are u doing _ _   
_ _ [4:11] jiho wtf _ _   
_ _ [4:31] i cant believe ur ignoring me in my time of need _ _   
_ __ [4:59] fine fuck you too

He sighed heavily and started to text him back, but then the doctor came in and told him there was nothing wrong and perhaps he should consider that he and his soulmate had formed a bond early. Jiho had blinked blankly at him, then screwed up his face and asked if a Park Kyung was checked in at this hospital and where. 

Kyung was still mad at him, but he could tell right away it was fake. He was nervous. They were both nervous. They knew what this meant, in a sort of abstract way, but they had no form of context for how it would affect them, affect their relationship. 

“I don’t even know if I like boys yet,” Jiho had mumbled, running a sulky hand over his arm where it still ached from time to time. Kyung’s was in a cast. 

“That’s okay,” Kyung shrugged, although it was a lie and they both knew it. “Maybe we’re like. Friend soulmates. Is that a thing?”

Jiho shrugged back. “Don’t think so?” (It isn’t.)

“It’s okay,” Kyung said firmly, reaching over to give him a pat on the knee. The sensation didn’t transfer to him. It didn’t always do that. “If you want to date girls that’s okay, okay? I  _ know _ I like girls, but I think I like boys too, so it’s fine.”

“You like anyone who likes you,” Jiho accused. 

Kyung scowled at him. “I do  _ not _ . And there’s nothing wrong with liking it when people like me.”

Jiho ignored that and grabbed his arm, tugging it closer gently and starting to draw on the plaster. “Do you like me?” His voice had been soft, so quiet he could barely hear it himself. 

Kyung didn’t answer for a long time, so long that Jiho wasn’t even sure he had heard it. Then, finally, “I don’t know. I think I could, but I don’t think I do now. Is that okay?”

“That’s okay.”

So they had been okay. Nothing changed much because it didn’t have to change much. Nothing changed until Jiho felt lips against his for the first time and he texted Kyung immediately. They were in the ninth grade now, and they were steadfastly ignoring the times that they felt a hand around them in the morning or late at night. Neither of them had done the kissing thing yet, although Jiho really wanted to, and he could tell Kyung did too. They were both avoiding that kind of thing. It was awkward, with your soulmate just right there. 

[4:22]  _ did you just kiss someone _

[4:23]  _ wtf i thought you did  _

Jiho had stared at his phone for several minutes. He imagined Kyung did the same thing. 

[4:29]  _ so _ _   
_ [4:29]  _ do we have another soulmate? _

Jiho stared at his phone again. 

[4:30]  _ i guess? _

[4:30]  _ does this mean i can date kim ha ri?  _ _   
_ [4:30]  _ bc if we have more than one then we can date other people right? _

This time, Jiho snorted. There was an odd weight in his chest at the question, though. Not that he didn’t want Kyung to date other people, just that he… wanted to date him too. And he sort of hated the idea that someone else was going to be dating his soulmate and he wasn’t. 

[4:32]  _ sure i’m not your mom _

He watched his phone for a few more moments, disappointed when all he got was an emoji in response, then tossed it aside and focused on something else. Anything else. He didn’t want to think about it. 

With the addition of a third soulmate, things got more complicated. Kyung was dating now, although he didn’t stay with Ha Ri. Jiho was pretty sure he was kissing people, but their other soulmate was dating someone too, probably, because they did an awful lot of kissing. 

Jiho tried it. He went out, he found a girl, and he liked her. He did. But when he kissed her it felt weird and hollow and his mind flickered back to Kyung and when that happened, his heart beat faster and he didn’t go out with her again. 

Two days after he kissed a girl, one month and three days after Kyung started kissing other people, one month and  _ four _ days since they agreed they could do that, Kyung texted Jiho in the middle of the night. 

[1:14]  _ do you know if you like boys yet? _

Jiho had been up, working on lyrics and pretending he was cramming, and his heart jumped into his throat at the question. They hadn’t spoken for almost a week. Jiho had thought he was upset, that he had done something wrong. How long had Kyung been sitting on that question?

Was he waiting for an answer?

Had he been waiting for an answer for two years?

[1:17]  _ yeah, i think so _

[1:31]  _ did you fall asleep or do you just want me to suffer? _

[1:31]  _ idk i just _   
[1:31]  _ idk if i like all boys _

[1:32]  _ i don’t care if you like all boys _   
[1:32]  _ you know what nvm just go to bed _

[1:33]  _ what the fuck do you want from me it’s 1am and this is over text _

[1:34]  _ did you want me to ask you this in person in braod daylight _ _   
_ [1:34]  _ do you think this is fuckign easy for me jiho  _

Not for the first time, Jiho swallowed hard, a frown pulling at his lips as he looked away from the phone. He should answer. He didn’t know if he had an answer. He didn’t know if this was a good time for this. He was tired, had been up since six in the morning, had school tomorrow. He turned and buried his face in the pillow, screamed a little just to get the tension out. People at school were starting to get their soulmates, starting to know that they were out there. They couldn’t do anything with it yet, but it was starting. Jiho wished he didn’t know his yet, or that they hadn’t already been friends, or that there was nothing to ruin in the first place. He wished this was easy. People made it sound so easy, like fitting puzzle pieces together. 

He and Kyung had done that so long ago that it was like trying to see if they had another side that would work. It was scary to let it go, scary to disconnect, but he thought that maybe they were going to fit together on another side. He thought that maybe it was worth it to find out. 

[2:03]  _ I think i like one boy _ _   
_ [2:05]  _ wanna go on a date on friday? _

***

The date was a fucking disaster. Jiho wasn’t sure what else he expected, honestly. Neither of them had known what the fuck they were doing. Kyung had done the dating thing for a while now, but this was a whole other ballgame. This was trying to date your best friend. 

They went to a movie and tried to hold hands, but Jiho’s hands were sweating and he didn’t like that. They went to dinner, but it was weirdly fancy and made them both nervous to be eating in a place like that. They went to a bowling alley, but Kyung’s hands must have been sweating too, because on his second round, he swung back and the ball flew out of his hand. They both watched in horror as it crashed into a rack of heavy bowling balls and cracked two of them, sent bowling balls scattering and rolling all over the place and whacking into people’s ankles. 

They left without their shoes. They took off running and sprinted out of the bowling alley, ran side by side down the street as someone yelled after them and somewhere along the way, they started to laugh. 

The running ended at a McDonalds, when they were too tired to keep going, both breathless and their chests heaving, and they were too big for the playground, but they crammed themselves into one of the tubes anyway, just in case someone was following. 

“We’re not good at dates,” Jiho said quietly, but he was smiling. They were crammed in so close together and Jiho had shot up like a beansprout over the summer. His head was mashed against the top curve and Kyung was twisted sideways to look at him. 

Kyung smiled, too wide, as always, and Jiho was struck by how pretty he was. Even in the yellow-ey tint of the light from the street. It was dark in the tube, but Jiho could see Kyung smiling. He shone when he did and it made his heart beat a little faster. “I think it was a pretty good date,” Kyung murmured. 

Jiho had laughed and shifted around, almost twisted his ankle trying to get it out from under him. Kyung had laughed at him and pushed and pulled until he was laying on his back, legs hanging out of the end into the night air. He shifted around too, twisted and turned until he was on his hands and knees and could look down at him upside down. 

It was awkward and clumsy and upside down. Kyung leaned down and kissed him and the Spider-man kiss probably worked better on a screen than it did in real life. Jiho’s nose bumped into Kyung’s chin and he could feel the same happening for him, and they both twisted to try and make it more comfortable, but they twisted the same way and it got worse. They broke apart laughing. It was partly because of how stupid and weird it was, but also because… 

Because that contact sent Jiho’s heart fluttering. The fingers on his cheeks had him flushed and curious. But the hand he could feel in his hair was the one he had raised to slide into Kyung’s and the lip he felt touch his teeth was his own when Kyung tried to make it a little deeper. 

“We’re not good at kissing,” he said, voice soft like something would break if he said it too loudly. 

“I think it was a pretty good kiss,” Kyung replied, just as softly. 

Their next kiss was better. They had clambered out of the play area and down to the pavement and walked home. Jiho had reached out to find Kyung reaching for him too and they tangled just their pinky and ring fingers together and didn’t say anything until they reached the door to Kyung’s apartment block. 

“Do you think we can just be… best friends, but also kiss sometimes?” Jiho asked quietly. He was just taller than Kyung now, and standing close enough to feel the warmth coming off of him, and their hands were still tangled together. 

“I think we can be the kind of best friends that call hanging out dates and kiss at the end,” Kyung nodded, tilting his head up a little more. 

Jiho shifted closer, bit by bit, and their lips were barely separated now. “Best boyfriends.”

A smile split Kyung’s face and he closed the distance between them again. 

This kiss was better, even though they were both smiling too much to really put the effort in. 

Jiho remembers all of it, every moment. He remembers sharing every weird sensation with Kyung and holding his hand through the pain of tattoos they never got and crashing together and grounding one another to reality when their soulmates fucked.

He remembers all of this as he makes room in the apartment for one more person, the already cramped space filled in more and more. They’re going to have to get something new, going to have to move again if they keep getting more people. They’re at five now, and Jiho’s really not actually sure it’s over.

(There’s more out there, he knows it, but he doesn’t want to say so.)

Kyung comes into the room and drapes himself across Jiho’s back, looking down at the collection of shoes scattered at the bottom of the closet. The bowling shoes, beat up and old, look back up at them. They’ve been too small for him for years now, but he’s never had the heart to get rid of them.

“You kept the shoes,” Kyung laughs. It’s not a question. 

Jiho turns, raises a brow at him. “You didn’t?”

He scoffs, gives him a kiss and then a shove that sends him off balance and topples him to the floor. “Of course I kept the shoes. What am I, a monster?” He goes to the bed and flops down on it, reaches out a hand to Jiho. “Come here. Let’s make moving hard for Yukwon and Minhyuk. They deserve it.”

Jiho grins at him, allows a laugh to break free and then he’s moving to the bed too and leaning over Kyung to sink into a kiss. Both hands grab the front of his shirt and pull him down. 

They still smile into their kisses.


End file.
